Congaree Butterfly Count (and a bonus)
Saturday, June 26th was the annual NABA.org butterfly count @ Congaree National Park - http://www.nps.gov/cong/index.htm
This is the 3rd count in which we've (my daughter Emily & I) participated and the 4th year we've attended a butterfly event @ Congaree.
The park has experienced a great deal of stormy weather over the last couple of weeks, culminating in a gully-washer on Friday, June 25th. This always bodes poorly for a butterfly count as the little critters take a while to dry out and recover. It's especially noticeable in the mornings when we normally explore and this year we experienced the fewest species ( 8 ) as well as the fewest number of actual specimens (32). I haven't heard the final count #'s from the other two groups as they were out until well into the afternoon and we had to head back toward home just after lunch.
I did capture a couple of pics of species I had yet to photograph, although I really need to upgrade some lenses to get better shots in certain situations. I found myself with the 20D and the 70-200 in my hands almost the entire time. All the pics have fill-flash (ETTL w/ minus 1/3 or minus 2/3's FEV) except the bonus find.
The one I really hoped to get a good picture of is a Roadside Lacewing Skipper and we did find a couple of specimens in a clearing. Here's the best shot I got:
We saw quite a few Appalachian Browns but the overcast skies and the forest canopy made it extremely difficult to get great pics of them.
I tried anyways:
The stars of our count were the Pearly Eye butterflies - Creole's & Southerns (very slight differences) - I did not get a good picture at all of a Southern Pearly Eye, but I managed a couple of halfway decent shots of the Creole's. Here's one (heavily cropped):
We saw a couple Horace's Duskywings, a single Hackberry Emperor, a single Zarruco's Duskywing, and a couple of Pearl Crescent's (the only non-brown butterfly of the count for our group).
One of the treats @ Congaree is the rich biodiversity present in an old-growth swamp. They have some national and state record trees in the park including the largest known Loblolly Pine in the U.S. @ 137 ft tall and nearly 15 ft in circumference! We had the pleasure of hearing and then seeing a fledgling Barred Owl about 45-50 feet off the trail:
Overall, it was a great time and we look forward to the count in September!
This is the 3rd count in which we've (my daughter Emily & I) participated and the 4th year we've attended a butterfly event @ Congaree.
The park has experienced a great deal of stormy weather over the last couple of weeks, culminating in a gully-washer on Friday, June 25th. This always bodes poorly for a butterfly count as the little critters take a while to dry out and recover. It's especially noticeable in the mornings when we normally explore and this year we experienced the fewest species ( 8 ) as well as the fewest number of actual specimens (32). I haven't heard the final count #'s from the other two groups as they were out until well into the afternoon and we had to head back toward home just after lunch.
I did capture a couple of pics of species I had yet to photograph, although I really need to upgrade some lenses to get better shots in certain situations. I found myself with the 20D and the 70-200 in my hands almost the entire time. All the pics have fill-flash (ETTL w/ minus 1/3 or minus 2/3's FEV) except the bonus find.
The one I really hoped to get a good picture of is a Roadside Lacewing Skipper and we did find a couple of specimens in a clearing. Here's the best shot I got:
We saw quite a few Appalachian Browns but the overcast skies and the forest canopy made it extremely difficult to get great pics of them.
I tried anyways:
The stars of our count were the Pearly Eye butterflies - Creole's & Southerns (very slight differences) - I did not get a good picture at all of a Southern Pearly Eye, but I managed a couple of halfway decent shots of the Creole's. Here's one (heavily cropped):
We saw a couple Horace's Duskywings, a single Hackberry Emperor, a single Zarruco's Duskywing, and a couple of Pearl Crescent's (the only non-brown butterfly of the count for our group).
One of the treats @ Congaree is the rich biodiversity present in an old-growth swamp. They have some national and state record trees in the park including the largest known Loblolly Pine in the U.S. @ 137 ft tall and nearly 15 ft in circumference! We had the pleasure of hearing and then seeing a fledgling Barred Owl about 45-50 feet off the trail:
Overall, it was a great time and we look forward to the count in September!
posted by Raymond at Monday, June 28, 2010
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